Paul Finebaum Questions LSU Football's Title Chances Under Lane Kiffin in Year One

Lane Kiffin and the LSU Tigers have America's attention this offseason after reconstructing the program from the ground up with a new-look roster and coaching staff.

Upon Kiffin's arrival in Baton Rouge, the Bayou Bengals began generating unprecedented buzz with the program stealing headlines left and right.

Now, across the first 80 days of Kiffin's tenure as the new shot-caller of the LSU Tigers, the program remains in the national spotlight with a redesigned roster headlined by nine Top-100 players via the Transfer Portal as expectations rise.

The Big Ten has captured three consecutive National Championships with the conference now creating t-shirts flaunting “B1G TRIFECTA” emblazoned above the logos of its championship trio: Indiana (2025), Ohio State (2024), Michigan (2023).

The conference continues "rubbing it in the face of" the SEC with the program looking to retake the crown at the top.

LSU Tigers Football: Benefield. — Courtesy of Ty Benefield's Instagram.

Now, SEC Network's Paul Finebaum has revealed which teams could lift the conference back to the pinnacle of the sport. What did he say of the LSU Tigers?

“I think if you’re practical, you have to look at who are the best teams in the SEC coming back. And I think it’s likely Georgia with Texas on the same level. I think either one of them are capable, depending on circumstances,” Finebaum said Monday during his weekly appearance on WJOX’s McElroy and Cubelic In The Morning radio show in Birmingham.

“I don’t know beyond that. Texas A&M is a little bit of a wildcard. I think LSU is a Playoff team. I don’t think LSU is capable of making that run, but I think LSU is definitely a playoff team. Alabama, I’m not confident in right now.”

“I boldly said last year — and, by the way, I said it because I believed it — the SEC would win (the 2025 national championship). I thought Georgia and Texas had the best chance, and I still think they do,” Finebaum continued. “But I wonder about the Big Ten. …

"It’s a little bit difficult. I don’t think there’s that super team (in the Big Ten) next year. I don’t think you can also predict an Indiana situation. So, I feel like, after a very long and meandering answer, there are at least two (SEC contenders) and maybe one or two more.”

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